July 1 to 11, 2027
Huachuma retreat in the Sacred Valley
Ten days in Peru, held inside six months. Two full days of ceremony on the mountain and planting at the Huachuma Sanctuary.
The next season
The next retreat
July 1 to 11, 2027
The retreat runs July 1 to 11, 2027, ten nights, with nine places.
Registration is open. Apply, and we will talk it through before anything is booked.
| Ten days | In Pisac, the Sacred Valley |
|---|---|
| Nine places | One group at a time |
| Two ceremonies | Full days on the mountain |
| From $3,800 | $500 holds your place |
Ten days in Pisac
Ten days in the Sacred Valley of Peru, in the village of Pisac, with two full days of ceremony on the mountain.
It is closer to a course than to a holiday, and it is held on a mountain rather than in a room. You are taught the history of this plant, the science of it, how it grows, and how a ceremony works. Then you sit in two of them. On the last full day you put cactus in the ground at the Huachuma Sanctuary.
The medicine
The plant
Huachuma is a columnar cactus from the Andes, Echinopsis pachanoi, which older books call Trichocereus pachanoi. It has been in use in this part of the world for around three thousand years, a relationship between a people and a plant that has run unbroken.
The Quechua name is usually read as waqcha uma, roughly “without a head”. It describes what the plant does rather than what it looks like: it quiets the analytical mind and moves your attention from the head to the heart.
It is also called San Pedro, after the saint who holds the keys. That name comes from the years when the Church was working to end the practice, which tells you something about how the practice survived.
The teaching
What you will learn
Sessions run on the days between ceremonies, when there is room to think.
History
| Chavin de Huantar, roughly 900 to 200 BCE. | A temple complex in the northern highlands with the plant carved into its stonework, held by a figure at the centre of the site. This is where the record starts, and it starts with the plant already at the centre of religious life rather than at the edge of it. |
|---|---|
| 1532, and what followed. | The Spanish arrival, Cajamarca, and the seizure of Atahualpa. Then three centuries in which the medicine was recorded as heresy and its practitioners were prosecuted. The Peruvian Inquisition ended in 1820. The practice outlived it. |
| How it survived. | Some priests tried the medicine themselves and came back with something they wanted to reconcile with their own faith. The renaming to San Pedro belongs to that period. The tradition took on the vocabulary of the people trying to end it and continued underneath it. |
Science
| What mescaline is and what it does. | The pharmacology, honestly, including the parts that are well established and the parts that are still argument. |
|---|---|
| Why this plant increases sensation rather than dulling it. | Most substances people reach for turn the volume down. This one turns it up, and that is the point of it. |
| Mescaline is one compound among many. | It dominates the conversation because it was isolated early and comes out of the plant easily. There are tyramines in there too, and a long list of others, and fats and sugars and minerals. When five alkaloids are recorded in a cactus, those are the five that could be identified, and there may be hundreds. The means of analysing them are limited. |
Cultivation
| How it grows. | Slowly from seed, readily from a cutting, and differently depending on where in the Andes it sits. You will see several varieties growing in one place and learn to tell them apart. |
|---|---|
| The spines. | They are too small to defend the plant against anything. One explanation is that they are left over from an ancestor that needed them. Another, from watching the plant rather than classifying it, is that they catch dew and feed water down to the skin. A cactus that gave up its armour and learned to drink from the air describes what the medicine asks of a person. |
| Why it is at risk. | Demand has grown quickly, wild plants are cut faster than they regrow, and a plant that takes years to reach a usable size cannot absorb that. This is the problem the Foundation exists to work on. |
| You will plant. | At the Huachuma Sanctuary, in the ground, with your hands. |
Ceremonial use
| There is no single ceremony. | This plant has been used in ceremony in many different ways over three thousand years, and it still is. What follows is how the ceremonies on this retreat are held, which is one of them: where the circle sits, why it sits close enough to touch, and how the day moves from first light to the end. |
|---|---|
| The tools. | A stick, a rattle and a feather are passed around the circle. The stick is held in the left hand, the rattle in the right and crossed over it, the feather in the fingers of the left. They are an invitation to sing. Nobody has to sing, and passing them on is a complete answer. |
| The direction of movement. | Everything moves clockwise. You pass in front of people rather than behind them. You do not point the soles of your feet at the altar. These are small rules and they keep nine people moving as one body without anyone having to negotiate. |
| The silence. | Ceremonies are held in noble silence, which is a commitment to stay inside your own experience. The urge to speak in the middle of a ceremony is usually the urge to get out of a feeling. You will be taught what to do with that urge instead of obeying it, and what to say to someone who speaks to you. |
| How a group holds itself. | Confidentiality, boundaries, consent before touch and consent before advice, and how to witness someone without trying to fix them. These are covered in the preparation calls and practised for the whole ten days. |
What we teach for.
Understanding rather than facilitation, which is a separate discipline and a different course. What people wrote about the ten days afterward is further down this page.
Miguel’s framework
Four doors, and a map of a life
Miguel works with four doors and he opens them in order. Each one carries an element and an animal, and each one is also a season of a life.
| East. | Fire and the puma. Childhood, and coming into presence. |
|---|---|
| West. | Water and the eagle. Youth, and the opening of perspective. |
| North. | Air and the deer. The generations behind you and ahead of you. |
| South. | Earth and the snake. Elderhood, and staying close to the ground. |
As Miguel puts it, we need a map to navigate the terrain. This is his framework and it is his to give, and the preparation calls go further into it before you fly.
The container
Six months, with ten days in the middle
The calls before and the sessions after are online, so the only travel is the ten days.
Before you fly
Four weekly calls. History, science, ceremony, and packing, with the nine of you together.
Ten days in Peru
Two ceremonies, the teaching sessions, the Sanctuary, and open days between them.
After you land
Four group integration sessions, spaced across the months when the useful questions arrive.
Suggested reading before you travel: San Pedro Huachuma: Opening the Pathways of the Heart, by Javier Regueiro.
Two ceremonies, each a full day on the mountain, guided by Miguel Mendiburu.
The shape of it
The ten days
A shape rather than a timetable. Weather and a group of nine both have opinions, so this flexes. Arrival on the first day and departure on the eleventh is ten nights.
How the days run.
Ceremony days are full days. We leave in the morning and come down as the light goes. Other mornings start around the table for breakfast. Middle days go to sound work, ancient sites, or nothing at all. Afternoons are yours. At dusk everyone comes back together to eat, and the evening usually finds its way to the fire, some songs, and a story that runs longer than it should.
| Day 1. | Arrive in Cusco and transfer down to Pisac |
|---|---|
| Day 2. | Rest from the travel. A gentle walk through the town or up to the terraces |
| Day 3. | Opening circle with Miguel, and the group agreements out loud |
| Day 4. | Open day. Market, rest, and preparation |
| Day 5. | First mountain huachuma ceremony |
| Day 6. | Integration. Rest and light time together |
| Day 7. | Open day. Ancient sites, horses, massage, or nothing |
| Day 8. | Second mountain huachuma ceremony |
| Day 9. | Rest and integrate |
| Day 10. | Closing circle and planting at the Huachuma Sanctuary |
| Day 11. | Departure and transfer to Cusco |
We guide gently and you set the pace. Rest is part of the work here.
Preservation
Five thousand cacti in the ground
Wild huachuma is cut faster than it grows back. The Huachuma Sanctuary is the work that answers it: land where mature plants are protected and new ones are propagated, with several hundred already in the ground and a hillside that will hold five thousand.
Every group visits, is taught what is growing and why it matters, and plants.
Huachuma Works LLC is wholly owned by the Huachuma Foundation, a 501(c)(3) in Arizona. Any profit this company makes is returned to the Foundation and applied to its charitable purposes.
Your guides
Who you will be with
Hamid Jabbar
Space holder and facilitator, founder of the Huachuma Foundation
Hamid teaches on every group. Music came first, at NYU on a scholarship, and it is still how he thinks. Law came next, a degree at UCLA and several years practising in Los Angeles. Then yoga and meditation, practised since 2005 and taught since 2013, and huachuma and the people who hold it in Peru since 2017.
He founded the Huachuma Foundation and serves as its director. The conservation work every group visits is the Foundation’s, and any profit this company makes is returned to it.
Miguel Mendiburu
Ceremony facilitator, Sacred Valley
Miguel has offered huachuma ceremonies for over twenty years from his home base in the Sacred Valley. His style is gentle and unhurried. He is known for guiding people into states of unity and remembering without ever making a performance of it.
Miguel owns and stewards the land where the Huachuma Sanctuary is growing, and the preservation project was his vision before it was ours. His decades with the plant shape both the ceremonies and the conservation work.
The house
Where you stay
Martina Wasi, a private Andean villa ten minutes on foot from the centre of Pisac, on more than four thousand square meters of garden and farmland with the mountains directly behind it.
Local textiles, a fireplace in the common room, a full kitchen, laundry, a dining room, and a game area. Sheep, guinea pigs, and several unserious dogs live on the property.
Two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, cooked from fresh local ingredients. No seed oils, no processed food. Tell us about allergies and restrictions in the application and the cook works around them. Lunches are your own, and Pisac is a good town to be hungry in.
Four ways to sleep
| Shared room. | Two to four beds and a shared bathroom, assigned by gender unless you tell us otherwise |
|---|---|
| Private single room | with a private bathroom |
| Bungalow. | Its own kitchen, patio and fireplace, and popular with couples |
| Premium private suite. | The largest and most private rooms we have |
Bungalows and premium suites are usually at Karina Wasi next door, which has its own kitchens, patios and fireplaces. Rooms go in the order deposits arrive.
The town
Pisac and the Sacred Valley
Pisac sits at the lower end of the Sacred Valley, cobbled streets backed by granite peaks. The farmers market runs most mornings with fresh produce, juice, and breakfast made in front of you. On Sundays the main square fills with textiles, carved flutes, and a lane of Andean herbs and incense.
Above the town the terraces and the masonry are still standing, and the irrigation canals cut into them are still running. The Vilcanota river moves below, on its way toward the Amazon. People call this the valley of wellbeing.
Fit
Who comes on this
| You want to understand this medicine and not only to take it | You are willing to do the preparation before you arrive |
| You can walk uphill above nine thousand feet for most of a day | You want to be changed, and you are willing to be uncomfortable on the way |
| You have steady ground at home to come back to | You are interested in the people you are travelling with as much as in the medicine |
We talk before anything is booked. Health, medication and anything else that matters is covered in that conversation, where you get a real answer rather than a rule.
The detail
What is included
In the price
| Ten nights accommodation in the room you choose |
| Two full day huachuma ceremonies with Miguel |
| All the teaching sessions |
| Two group meals a day, breakfast and dinner |
| All ground transport, including airport transfers and ceremony days |
| Evening community time by the fire |
| Optional sound baths and cacao circles |
| The visit and the planting at the Huachuma Sanctuary |
| Four weekly preparation calls before you travel |
| Four integration sessions after you return |
| Preparation materials, packing lists, and help coordinating flights |
What you arrange yourself
| Airfare to and from Cusco, which we help you coordinate |
| Lunches, so the group can eat its way through Pisac. It is inexpensive and it is part of the trip |
| Travel and medical insurance, which we recommend and do not require |
| Extra activities the group decides it wants, such as ecstatic dance, temazcal or more sound work. We make the introductions |
| Personal shopping, and you will shop |
Arriving a day early or staying a day late can be arranged for a small additional cost. Ask.
The 2023 group
In their words
People who came in 2023 wrote about the ten days afterward. Every testimonial is printed in full on the testimonials page.
“This retreat to Peru, the love song to the mountains, is the best I have been on. And I have been on many.”
Prayas G., 2023 Group
“Hamid has mastered facilitating with integrity. He is incredibly intuitive and tuned in providing the right amount of support and grounded guidance whilst empowering you and giving you space to do the inner work.”
Saba S., 2023 Group
Read all four“This was my first experience with this type of plant medicine, I had a bit of imposter syndrome in joining our group of incredible individuals who had a deeper understanding of the medicine. However, Hamid and our container welcomed me with open arms and supported me through my journey.”
Joel W., 2023 Group
What it costs
The price
Per person, for the ten days.
| Shared room | $3,800 |
|---|---|
| Private single with a private bathroom | $4,800 |
| Bungalow or premium suite | $5,200 |
| Two sharing a bungalow or suite, each | $4,800 |
A $500 deposit holds your place once your application is accepted, whichever room you choose. Half of what is left after the deposit is due two months before departure and the other half one month before. On a shared room that is $500, then $1,650, then $1,650.
Settling in full at the moment of booking takes $200 off. Paying in full stands in lieu of the deposit, which is why it is the moment of booking that earns it. A shared room is $3,600 that way, and so on down the table. It never expires.
Any profit the company makes returns to the Foundation. The full terms are on our legal page.
Questions
What are the dates?
The retreat runs July 1 to 11, 2027, ten nights, with nine places. Registration is open.
Do I need experience with this medicine?
No. The four preparation calls bring everybody to the same starting point, and there is room in them for every question.
How difficult is it physically?
Expect several hours uphill above nine thousand feet on the two ceremony days, and to be on your feet for most of them. Pisac sits around nine thousand seven hundred feet, and the first ceremony comes after several easy days so your body can catch up. If a knee, a back or a heart is on your mind, say so in the application.
What does a day look like when there is no ceremony?
Breakfast together, then the morning is open: the market, the terraces, sound work, horses, or nothing at all. Afternoons are yours. Everyone comes back together at dusk to eat, and the evening usually ends at the fire.
What if the season is full when I apply?
Apply anyway. We will tell you where things stand.
Can I come on my own?
Most people do. You share a house with the group for ten days, and the four preparation calls mean you arrive already knowing everybody.
Do I need a visa?
Most travellers from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the EU enter Peru on a tourist stamp at the airport, and your passport needs to be valid for at least six months after you enter the country. Check the current rules for your own passport before you book flights.
Is it legal?
Ceremonies are held in Peru, in a traditional Andean context, by local practitioners under local custom and law. Nothing crosses a border, and the full statement is on our legal page.
Can I get a certificate or facilitator training?
We teach for understanding rather than for facilitation, so there is no certificate. The teaching is the history, the science, the cultivation, and the ceremonial use of huachuma. Training people to hold ceremonies is a separate discipline and a different course.
How to apply
This is an application rather than a checkout.
| Apply | About fifteen minutes, and it asks for no payment. Every question on it is there for a reason. |
|---|---|
| We talk | A personal reply within a few days, and then a call where we both decide. |
| You decide | Nothing is charged before the call. $500 holds your place, and the preparation materials follow. |
The next step
July 1 to 11, 2027
If the mountains have been on your mind, apply and let us talk. It takes about fifteen minutes, it asks for no payment, and nothing is booked until after we have talked.
Questions first? Write to us and we will reply within a few days.